Up to a point i can put up with and modify my driving to suit the on board AEBS demon, but blowed if i'll ever buy a car that interferes with the steering which the newest models do, on another forum a discussion about this is revealing some terrifying incidents.

Can't wait (not) until the fools decide to implement this ridiculous tech on trucks, it'll be fun when the 44 ton Scania coming towards you doesn't like the driver keeping over to the left and pushes the truck to the right at just the right moment.

Have manufacturers managed to fix the issue with sensors being set off because an errant piece of litter or plastic bag blows onto them?

It always seemed daft to me that such 'safety' features relied on just one sensor (I presume they are that centrally-place square one under the number plate) and not, say, 2 or 3, like parking sensor system use.

In fact, when don't they have a combined system for both, just taking into account the speed of the car as to whether the brakes activate on their own or just give a warning for proximity?

Or systems (say for parking) that don't allow the gas pedal to engage if a person or animal is detected in the geared direction of travel within X distance?

That might stop those tragic deaths (especially for automatics) where the victim was run over on their own driveway (like that Star Trek actor), or by a friend/spouse when the driver mistakenly put the car in reverse or hit the gas instead of the brake?

Just me spit-balling some ideas.

Have manufacturers managed to fix the issue with sensors being set off because an errant piece of litter or plastic bag blows onto them?

It always seemed daft to me that such 'safety' features relied on just one sensor (I presume they are that centrally-place square one under the number plate) and not, say, 2 or 3, like parking sensor system use.

In fact, when don't they have a combined system for both, just taking into account the speed of the car as to whether the brakes activate on their own or just give a warning for proximity?

Or systems (say for parking) that don't allow the gas pedal to engage if a person or animal is detected in the geared direction of travel within X distance?

That might stop those tragic deaths (especially for automatics) where the victim was run over on their own driveway (like that Star Trek actor), or by a friend/spouse when the driver mistakenly put the car in reverse or hit the gas instead of the brake?

Just me spit-balling some ideas.

I can't say for certain, but I think it's normally a radar behind or just under the grille badge. Subaru (of course) use a different system with cameras at the top of the windscreen. Apparently, it actually works, so I suspect the answer to your question is that it's more expensive to make a decent one.

Odd, how all this was supposed to be for 'safety', which is supposed to save money by avoiding, not causing serious accidents. I suspect it's more box-ticking to please political Overlords in Brussels.

We would need to have some stats on the number of accidents these systems may cause relative to the number of accidents avoided. How would we ever know about the latter category?

Presumably the type of accidents caused by them are more often when driving at 30+mph, often considerably more (especially those caused by sensor errors, not just something blowing across the car and getting caught over the sensor), whereas a good deal of ones avoided will be those at slowish speeds in more urban settings, like around schools, old peoples' homes, shopping areas, perhaps also around farms with livestock, where there is a higher likelihood of people (and animals) suddenly walking / running out in front of vehicles.

Whilst such sensors may stop the occasional accident of that latter type when driving above (say) 40mph, at best they will likely just lessen the severity of the crash and injuries, given the chances of the car stopping in time to avoid hitting the person will still be relatively low, given the much longer stopping distances as higher speeds.

Ye can nae defy the laws o'physics, but too many think they can thanks to ABS, AEBS etc.

Quite, helped no end by buying the cheapest no name tyres they can find and running them right down to the legal minimum tread...brake servicing you ask? isn't that what the mot test is for.